Existing technologies for capturing and storing handwritten notes include digitized writing surfaces such as electronic whiteboards or SmartBoards™. Such electronic whiteboards typically either photocopy the entire writing surface or serve as the actual input device, such as an electronic template, for capturing the handwritten data. The whiteboards may be active or passive electronic devices in which the user writes on the surface with a specialized stylus. The active devices may be touch sensitive or responsive to a light or laser pen such that the whiteboard is the detector that detects the active signal. Passive electronic boards may use large, expensive, board-sized photocopying mechanisms. Previous whiteboard systems tend to be large, cumbersome, expensive, and immobile.